Gérald Genta spent years designing watches for other brands before founding his own house in 1969, and two of his former watchmakers now supervise its revival.
How it began
As a child, Ms. Genta recalls, he painted, drew portraits and secretly dreamed of becoming a fashion designer. His family was poor, so he worked from an early age. He learned the jeweller’s trade, where he first used precious metals, gemstones, the compass and the three-haired brush.
One day, tired of making the same bracelets, he created a different model and was told off for it. He left at once, threw his tools into the Rhône and swore never to have a boss again. The example of the industrial designer Raymond Loewy set him wondering which medium could carry his art. Geneva was the capital of watchmaking, so he chose watches, designing them and selling the designs to various brands.
Designing for others never let him express his own vision fully. In 1969 he struck out on his own with his namesake brand, Gérald Genta, and presented his first watches in 1973.
Design first
Genta painted new models at night and worked with his watchmakers during the day. Enrico Barbasini, who first met him in 1979, describes the routine. “It would always start from a gouache done by The Maestro, mostly at night, and then we would work to realize his artistic vision into a horological creation.”
The calibre followed the design, not the other way round. Genta was particular about thickness and wearability, even on the most complicated pieces. His team of watchmakers was led by Pierre-Michel Golay.
The watches
In 1977 Genta presented a perpetual calendar that was also automatic, in a case with the single-lug design of the house. In 1981 came an ultra-thin minute repeater, its calibre 2.72mm thick, with white onyx dials and moon phases in lapis lazuli.
In 1984 the Gefica Safari, made at the request of three clients, used a bronze case to avoid reflections and carried a compass. The same year, Disney characters began to appear on Genta dials. The octagonal case arrived in the mid-1980s with the Gold and Gold collection and turned sporty in 1992 with the Success.
In 1994 came the Grande Sonnerie, which the brand calls the most complicated watch of its time. It took five years to develop and has more than 1,000 parts, with a Westminster carillon on four gongs and a tourbillon.
The house today
The brand is being revived under the supervision of Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini, two of Genta’s former watchmakers. Both are head watchmakers at Gérald Genta and co-founders of La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton. The company, Gerald G. SA, is registered in care of La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton in Meyrin.
The new watches stay grounded in his design codes. The Gentissima Oursin case is covered in rows of gold beads or spikes, and the 41mm Blue Meteorite carries 234 white gold beads. Inside is the GG-005, a Zenith Elite calibre with a redesigned oscillating mass. The Geneva Time Only returns to a cushion-shaped case. The motto, the brand says, is the Maestro’s own: never replicating, always creating.
At a glance
- Founded: 1969 (first watches presented in 1973)
- Founder: Gérald Genta, designer
- Based in: Meyrin, Switzerland
- Known for: bold designs paired with grand complications; the Gentissima Oursin today
- Revival led by: head watchmakers Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini
Sources: Gérald Genta’s own website (The Maestro, Founding Designs, Horological Creations, Creative Minds, Terms of Use).